The Tribe Gathering - Memorial Day

"A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself."

-Joseph Campbell

There’s a reason why the term, “Serving in the military,” is used. They are servant leaders. Their service is to everyone living in the United States of America. And, there is simply no better example to draw from to exemplify sacrificial servant leadership than that of the men and women who have served and are serving our country in the branches of the United States Military. Co-founder of The Tribe Has Spoken, coach, father, brother, son, husband, and my best friend, US Army Captain Alan Thompson is among those brave few.

Sacrifice is a word that is thrown around and misused quite often. It’s used in the context of diet and exercise, conservative spending and budgeting of one’s finances, and in allotment of time to things we deem more worthy than others. The truth is, the distorted and privileged picture of sacrifice we civilians have painted in our minds has been afforded to us and created by every drop of blood and brushstroke of real sacrifice of the members of our armed forces.

Today many will point to the origins of Memorial Day and though those are truly honorable and worthy of remembrance, today I charge you to live a life of servant leadership that a fallen member of our country’s armed services would have been proud to have given their life for.

Leader, transcend yourself in every walk of your life. Be kind, love others, serve those you love and lead, use your gifts to pour into the lives of others, tell the truth and live it out, have integrity, live an honorable life of service to those you lead. The freedom to do so was granted to you by someone you never met who died thousands of miles away from their home and family. Just as our freedoms today and opportunity to remember the fallen are gifts, so is LEADERSHIP.

Today, reflect on your freedom, their sacrifice, and the gift of leadership you’ve been given. Live out your gratitude for the heroic sacrifice of our SERVICE men and women everyday.

To every member of our armed forces reading this, every family member of a soldier, every person that’s lost a loved one who served, & each and every person who is worried today about their loved one on the other side of the planet, thank you for your sacrifice. And, thank you Captain Alan Thompson for bravely standing in front of those that would do our country and citizens harm and applying a literal and figurative stiff arm that our college rugby coach, Curt Huckaby would be proud of.